Few remember that August bank holiday used to be the first Monday in August, not the last. When sunny, that weekend was by far the busiest of the year at seaside resorts, with beaches so packed it was hard to see the sand. The peak year was 1926, when the sun shone continually.

Southend-on-Sea, the closest resort to London, was swamped. Visitors arrived by rail and river and – finding every bed occupied – turned the six-mile promenade, beach and cliffs into a vast dormitory. An estimated 10,000 slept in the open, another 500 in a cinema. This pattern was repeated across the country, the problem being compounded by the fact that many factories took their annual two weeks' holiday the last week in July and the first in August. Whole cities decamped to the seaside.

After years of pressure from the tourist industry, the holiday was moved in 1965 in the hope that a bumper last weekend in August would extend the holiday season. This was the same time that the first charter flights were making Mediterranean sunshine holidays as cheap as staying at home. The decline of many a seaside resort had begun.

But now with climate change making many Mediterranean resorts too hot for comfort in August, and the European economy in a mess, there have been hopes of a revival in the British seaside holiday. This year the weather has tended to thwart these hopes, although after "the summer of sport" we might all need a break.